El salario mínimo en los principales países de la OCDE

"El salario mínimo en los principales países de la OCDE" expone, en primer lugar, una breve reseña histórica sobre el establecimiento y evolución de los salarios mínimos en los países más destacados de la OCDE. Posteriormente se hace hincapié en su incidencia o cobertura en nuestro país. En tercer lugar, se comparan las distintas vías que se suelen analizar para fijarlos, así como su ámbito de aplicación, características principales y la manera de determinarse en cada caso. Por último, se lleva a cabo un análisis de los índices de Kaitz y del porcentaje de trabajadores afectados por dichos salarios en los países examinados.Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico e Historia e Instituciones EconómicasGrado en Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Analysis of errors in the automatic translation of questions for translingual QA systems

Purpose – This study aims to focus on the evaluation of systems for the automatic translation of questions destined to translingual question-answer (QA) systems. The efficacy of online translators when performing as tools in QA systems is analysed using a collection of documents in the Spanish language. Design/methodology/approach – Automatic translation is evaluated in terms of the functionality of actual translations produced by three online translators (Google Translator, Promt Translator, and Worldlingo) by means of objective and subjective evaluation measures, and the typology of errors produced was identified. For this purpose, a comparative study of the quality of the translation of factual questions of the CLEF collection of queries was carried out, from German and French to Spanish. Findings – It was observed that the rates of error for the three systems evaluated here are greater in the translations pertaining to the language pair German-Spanish. Promt was identified as the most reliable translator of the three (on average) for the two linguistic combinations evaluated. However, for the Spanish-German pair, a good assessment of the Google online translator was obtained as well. Most errors (46.38 percent) tended to be of a lexical nature, followed by those due to a poor translation of the interrogative particle of the query (31.16 percent). Originality/value – The evaluation methodology applied focuses above all on the finality of the translation. That is, does the resulting question serve as effective input into a translingual QA system? Thus, instead of searching for “perfection”, the functionality of the question and its capacity to lead one to an adequate response are appraised. The results obtained contribute to the development of improved translingual QA systems

Modalidades de liberalización y trato preferencial para los países en desarrollo: los temas pendientes en la negociación de servicios en el ALCA (Tema Central)

El artículo analiza las posibilidades y condiciones del comercio de servicios dentro del proceso del ALCA, tomando como ejes fundamentales las modalidades de liberalización del comercio de servicios y el trato preferencial a las economías en desarrollo. El autor aborda estos dos aspectos como factores definitorios de los posibles resultados de la negociación regional, y sugiere, además, algunas ideas sobre la base del enfoque de "agenda positiva".Focusing on the modalities of service trade liberalization and the principle of preferential treatment for small developing economies, this article studies the possibilities and conditions of service trade negotiations within the ALCA. The author takes both elements as cruciall actors influencing the final results of the negotiation process, and suggests several recommendations from the perspective of a "positive agenda'

The personal income tax applied in the member states of European Union. The case of Spain.

In the Communication on "Tax policy in the European Union - Priorities for the years ahead" (COM/2001/260 of 23 May 2001), the Commission reiterated its belief that there is no need for an across the board harmonisation of Member States' direct tax systems. For tax policy, the Communication established, as a main priority, the need to address the concerns of individuals and businesses operating within the Internal Market by focusing on the elimination of tax obstacles to all forms of cross-border economic activity, in addition to continuing the fight against harmful tax competition. This approach was confirmed in the Communication "The contribution of taxation and customs policies to the Lisbon strategy" (COM/2005/532 of 25 October 2005) (European Commission, 2006). The Spanish Law No 35/2006, 28 th November of Personal Income Tax, reformed that tax. The long-term capital gains will be taxed at 18% (before 15%) ;the tax scale will be comprised of only 3 or 4 brackets (before 5) and the top marginal rate (before 45%) will be reduced; and some tax credits and allowances (acquisition of permanent home and contributions to pension funds for example) were readjusted in order to make them more accessible to low-income earners. The present paper makes a brief approach to the harmonisation in the European Union, explains the reform of the Spanish Personal Income Tax, introduces new figures and formulas never seen before at book of taxes, analyses the concept of the Spanish Personal Income Tax, studies the elements of this tax as the beneficiary, taxable person, territoriality, basis of assessment, exemptions, explains the basic mechanism of the tax, deductions, the taxable base, the tax rates, collections and examples. This paper is the result of three researches that the authors are carrying out at The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Ministry of Economy and Finance, University of CEU San Pablo, Madrid and University of Oviedo Spain from 2006 to 2008

The effects of metallicity on the Galactic disk population of white dwarfs

It has been known for a long time that stellar metallicity plays a significant role in the determination of the ages of the different Galactic stellar populations, when main sequence evolutionary tracks are employed. Here we analyze the role that metallicity plays on the white dwarf luminosity function of the Galactic disk, which is often used to determine its age. We employ a Monte Carlo population synthesis code that accounts for the properties of the population of Galactic disk white dwarfs. Our code incorporates the most up-to-date evolutionary cooling sequences for white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich and hydrogen-deficient atmospheres for both carbon-oxygen and oxygen-neon cores. We use two different models to assess the evolution of the metallicity, one in which the adopted metallicity is constant with time, but with a moderate dispersion, and a second one in which the metallicity increases with time. We found that our theoretical results are in a very satisfactory agreement with the observational luminosity functions obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and from the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey (SSS), independently of the adopted age-metallicity law. In particular, we found that the age-metallicity law has no noticeable impact in shaping the bright branch of the white dwarf luminosity function, and that the position of its cut-off is almost insensitive to the adopoted age-metallicity relationship. Because the shape of the bright branch of the white dwarf luminosity function is insensitive to the age-metallicity law, it can be safely employed to test the theoretical evolutionary sequences, while due to the limited sensitivity of the position of the drop-off to the distribution of metallicities, its location provides a robust indicator of the age of the Galactic disk.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Ecological-transaction model approach of adolescents’ parental maltreatment and peer-bullying: the moderating role of bullying at the classroom

INTRODUCTION: The present study examined the ecological-transactional model delineated by Cicchetti and Lynch (1993) and the nature of the association between adolescents’ parental maltreatment and victimization and bullying at school. METHOD: Multivariate multilevel regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 2.852 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 from 25 secondary schools. Data was nested across 133 classrooms. Classrooms level variables and individual variables in relationship to parental maltreatment, behavioural disorders, sex, and bullying and victimization were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Results indicated that adolescents who reported suffering violence at home, showed more vulnerability to becoming victims of bullying at school, with the relationship being moderated by the level of bullying in the classroom. It was also examined the role of behavioural disorders and a relation between these factors was found amongst the bullies but not the victims. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study uses the systemic perspective of ecological-transactional model on child maltreatment to show the importance between the school and home microsystems in the perpetuation of victimization. The results imply that what children experience at home might cause emotional and behavioural differences in varying classroom climates at school. Therefore, understanding the interactions between systems’ transaction of socialisation mechanisms might contribute for effective anti-bullying programs